St. Louis Blues Pros And Cons From Game 9 Vs. Colorado

The St. Louis Blues needed to have a strong game after dropping the bomb against Montreal. Going up against the undefeated Colorado Avalanche was not what most fans would have asked for, but this rivalry proved to be just that.

The St. Louis Blues definitely had a clunker of a game as the weekend began when they took on the Montreal Canadiens in an afternoon game. They needed a strong performance to rebound from that, but if you were drawing things up, you would not have the unbeaten in regulation Colorado Avalanche as your opponent.

However, the St. Louis Blues did start well overall. The first few minutes were a bit nervy. St. Louis took an early penalty and did their usual not getting a shot for the first couple minutes.

Once they settled into the game, the Blues did well. St. Louis worked their way into the game offensively and they were playing solid defense overall.

Then, the unexpected happend. St. Louis scored a power play goal pretty early in their power play to take a 1-0 lead. The power play has become so irritating, you often wonder if it would be better not to get any, so scoring was a bonus.

However, that joy was short lived. St. Louis kept taking foolish penalties and ended up down two men and Colorado would score on the five-on-three. The goal was not a direct result of having two extra men, but you just cannot give an offense like the Avalanche that kind of opportunity.

St. Louis was a bit fortunate to end the first tied 1-1, but you would take that any day of the week if you had said it going in.

However, though the first period made you nervous, the second period was marvelous. St. Louis got back to playing Blues hockey and shut down one of the best offenses in the game today.

They literally shut down the Avalanche, keeping them to one shot in total. The Blues would grab a 3-1 lead with well timed, smart offense too.

The Blues just kept up that gritty, smart hockey in the third period and it paid dividends en route to a 3-1 win. It does have to be mentioned that Colorado lost Mikko Rantanen, but these things happen.

The bottom line is the Blues got it done. We were all worried about them, but as they did last season, St. Louis seems to find that next gear when playing teams they perceive as some of the best in the league.

Pros: Schenn gives the Blues an early boost

One of the prevailing themes across social media following the Blues first game is the Blues should have paid Brayden Schenn prior to last year. It is pure coincidence that Schenn has been hot following his long-term contract, but a welcome one.

Schenn continued his hot streak by scoring on the power play and just looking like a force to be reckoned with overall. Schenn wasted no time once receiving the puck and just whipped it into the top corner.

The goal was Schenn’s sixth overall in nine games played. It was his first on the power play too, which can be nothing but good.

When the Blues acquired Schenn, everyone said he could only score on the power play. Sadly, he’s done little of that for the Blues, so if this is the start of him rebounding on the man advantage, so much the better.

Regardless, it was one of those situations where you need your best players to be your best players. Schenn stepped to the plate in that instance.

Cons: Dumb penalties

In a fan’s eyes, almost all penalties are dumb. There are exceptions, but, for the most part, we rarely see the need for them. We are not on the ice with some of the fastest human beings alive though.

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That said, the Blues seem to excel in foolish penalties. It is not always the penalty in and of itself, but often the timing of them. That was definitely the case with the Blues early in this game.

St. Louis got away with taking an early penalty. They killed off a strong Colorado power play early in the contest. They were not so lucky later on.

The Blues seem to have a major issue taking offensive zone penalties at the moment. Alexander Steen is normally pretty reliable in this aspect, but he foolishly set a pick on a player off the faceoff and was immediately sent off for interference. We might think it was weak, but the call was correct.

After that, Jay Bouwmeester took a somewhat unnecessary hooking call. I say unnecessary because it is easy for us to say he could have just let the guy go by and tried to block any potential shot, but that is not always practical. However, this circles back to situational awareness.

The Blues were actually doing a good job of killing off that initial penalty. Bouwmeester would have been better served to try and stand his ground and trust his goaltender to take care of anything that happened from a tight angle. Instead, he got his stick caught up around the hands and, though it was also a weak call, it was a textbook hook.

The Blues lost their first lead of the game directly because St. Louis had been in the box too much.

Pros: Great second period

If you thought the Blues looked shaky during the first period, you would not be alone. You would be alone if you said that about the second period.

The second period against the Avalanche might have been the best period the Blues have played, overall, all season to this point. They were as close to their playoff selves as you can get in an early season, regular season game.

They were throwing hits, they were blocking shots, they were skating with fluidity and they were getting goals. The Blues got two goals in that period and each one was due to effort.

The first goal of the period, second overall, was a thing of beauty. The Avs had a delayed penalty on them and St. Louis actually looked like they had an extra man the way they moved the puck. The Blues had all six players on the ice touch the puck as they connected on pinpoint precision passes before David Perron finished off the goal. Vladimir Tarasenko picked up an assist on the play, his second in the game, proving himself to be an assist machine of late.

The second goal of the period was lucky, but showcased the Blues overall effort. Jaden Schwartz was a one man machine on the penalty kill and his effort led to the goal.

Schwartz had possession of the puck toward the end of a Blues penalty. As he drove through the neutral zone, instead of dumping the puck in, he cut back through two defenders and held on. Then, he absorbed a big hit in the zone to keep the team in possession of the puck. Eventually, Tarasenko would toss one in off the goaltender, but it was all that from Schwartz beforehand that provided that opportunity.

From there on, the Blues just played a solid game. There defense was sound, not allowing a shot against on Colorado’s lone power play during the period and they held the Avs to only one shot overall in the second.

Offensively, they were crisp and did not waste time. If not for Nathan MacKinnon‘s deflection at the last moment, Schwartz would have had a goal and it would have been 4-1 going into the intermission.
Second and third goal.

Schwartz solid shift on the pk and to set up the goal. Great passing. If not for McKinnon, it would have been 4-1.

Overview

I’ll be honest. I have been pretty sour on the Blues following their last few losses.

The one against the Islanders bothered me more than the rest because of the utter collapse, but they all stung. The game against Montreal was just the culmination of playing lazy hockey.

Whether it was the players just realizing they were not putting in the effort or something said in the locker room, it all comes out evenly in the end. St. Louis returned to a winning recipe against the Avalanche.

They fought and won battles along the wall and were the first to plenty of the 50/50 plays. They played smart defense and, except when they took the penalties, were generally in good position for most of the night. It was only when they lost their position that they had to take those penalties.

St. Louis got quality goaltending. Jordan Binnington was not called on often, but he made the saves when he needed to. You would love to have the shutout, but nobody was going to stop that power play goal against.

The offense was what impressed me the most. With a couple exceptions here or there, like the Montreal game, the Blues offense has not been the problem. However, it was the fluidity and chemistry that popped out here.

The passing was about as good as we have seen from this team in a long time and that includes plenty of their playoff games. They were on point almost the entire contest. They might not have been late-90’s Red Wings good with their passing, but it was still good.

What is satisfying is that the team finally played a full 60 minutes. Sure, there were portions of the first period that could have gone better, but they showed up from start to finish. Even in games they have won, that was not always the case.

I’m not going to sit here and say they have righted the ship and all is well, but you had to start somewhere. The Blues could not continue to coast through the early season and hope to turn it on like 2018-19. Hopefully this was the start of some more consistent play.